Six-month-old has a pet python

A python for a pet? Not in the urban jungle perhaps, but in this remote village in Beed district of Maharashtra, few stop to stare at a six-month-old baby playing with a large snake.

The little girl is left to play with the python, crawls behind it, often has the big tail snaking through her tiny legs. She pats the snake, which curls up benignly next to, both soaking in the sun. The child’s parents work in the fields.

The baby’s uncle is a snake catcher. He reportedly leaves poisonous snakes well alone in the jungles. But a non-poisonous one like this python is brought home for family recreation.